In recent years, many people have elected to do their own desktop printing of their business cards, postal cards and the like using a personal computer and an ink jet or laser printer. This is due to the convenience and relatively lower cost than having the task done by commercial printers. Thus, companies such as Avery produce business forms which consumers can use to design and print their own business cards. Usually these forms are produced on 81/2.times.11 inch sheets with a total of 10 business cards of size 31/2.times.2 inch each laid out in two (2) columns by five (5) rows format. After printing of the cards, each individual card can be separated for use. However, business forms intended for this and other similar purposes are invariably produced with "micro-perforation" on the sheets in a manner similar to postage stamps to enable the separation of the individual cards after printing. These business forms are deemed to be less than professional because they suffer from certain inherent disadvantages. Thus it has been found that it takes considerable effort and care to separate the cards to ensure that each card remains intact. The corners of the cards are especially prone to unintentional tear during the separation procedure. Due to the micro perforations, each separated card has a jagged look on the edges, which is highly undesirable for professional use. Another detrimental factor is the fact that the quality of the card stock that can be employed in these prior art techniques is restricted to card stocks that are easy to be torn apart at the perforation. Therefore only relatively thin stock is available in the pre-micro perforated format. Because of the above shortcomings, the desktop printing of business cards has only a limited market appeal despite the flexibility and convenience and other advantages such a procedure enjoys over commercial printing.
In the area of the desktop printing of digital photos, complete uncut sheets of photo quality paper (e.g. HP Photo Paper for Inkjet Printing) are used. After the images are printed, consumers have to use special cutters to cut the photo sheets into individual photos since no means of releasing each individual photo is provided. This too requires special effort on the part of the operator.
In reviewing the prior art, applicant came upon the U.S. patent of Greig, assigned to Moore Business Forms, Inc. namely U.S. Pat. No. 5,403,236 issued Apr. 4, 1995. The invention herein represents a significant improvement over the invention of that patent.
Therefore it is a first object of this invention to provide a business form with card stock which would allow the printing of individual cards with clean cut edges without a jagged look.
It is a second object to provide a business form, which employs a card stock, which would permit easy and complete separation of the individual cards upon completion of printing from the business form.
It is another object to provide a business form which is able to employ the production of business cards and other cards from card stock of any desirable quality, including thicker card stocks, card stocks that cannot be torn apart, plastic card stocks or photo quality card stocks.
It is yet another object to provide a business form for which no special cutter is required for the separation of individual cards therefrom.
It is still another object to provide a business form for the improvised desktop printing of other cards such as but not limited to digitized photos, ID cards, name tags, greeting cards, sports cards, ROLODEX.RTM. cards of all sizes, and novelty cards among others.
Other objects of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.
The invention accordingly comprises the device possessing the features, properties, and the relation of components which are exemplified in the following detailed disclosure and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the appended claims.
For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the invention reference should be made to the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.